Oracle won’t relinquish JavaScript trademark, so the JS community prepares for court battle

In a nutshell: JavaScript is about to become a matter of legal proceedings between competing parties. Oracle claims ownership of the trademark, but the company will now have to defend its questionable position in court as the community argues it needs to be genericized.

The initial attempt to cancel Oracle’s ownership of the “JavaScript” trademark was unsuccessful. Deno Land and other prominent JS community members recently petitioned the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The proponents asked the US agency to retire the trademark once and for all, but Oracle was unwilling to let go of ownership.

Deno recently provided an update on the matter via X, stating that Oracle must now provide its formal answer to the petitioners. Even though they know what that answer will be, Deno and the community are prepared to prove in court that the trademark has become generic and that Oracle has little to do with the language’s ongoing development.

#FreeJavaScript update: Oracle has informed us they won’t voluntarily withdraw their trademark on “JavaScript”. Next: they’ll file their Answer and we’ll start discovery to show how “JavaScript” is widely recognized as a generic term and not controlled by Oracle. pic.twitter.com/0UQEbpC73e

– Deno (@deno_land) January 7, 2025

Oracle obtained the JavaScript brand after acquiring Sun Microsystems in 1997. Deno Land, the organization that manages the Deno runtime project for JavaScript and other web-based frameworks, claims that Oracle has made no valuable contributions to the programming language over the years. Deno also claims that Oracle broke the law when it renewed the trademark a few years ago.

Deno alleges that Oracle illegally used a screenshot of the open-source runtime project Node.js to prove to the USPTO that it commercially owned JavaScript. The petition also stated that the corporation did not sell any actual product or service based on JS, essentially abandoning the trademark.

Someone on X tried to support Oracle’s position by stating that JavaScript is a widely recognized term, just like “coke.” Deno countered that it is apples and oranges since the Coca-Cola company sells a product called “Coke.” Other users in the thread stated that Oracle doesn’t miss a single opportunity to gain more hate from the software community.

At any rate, the fight over the JavaScript trademark threatens to become another troublesome tug-of-war in the tech industry comparable to the clash between Automattic and WP Engine over WordPress ownership. Oracle must formally reply by February 3, but the legal quarrel could continue well into 2026 unless it concedes.